DESCRIPTIVE TEXT NARRATIVE FOR SMOKE/DUST OBSERVED IN SATELLITE IMAGERY
THROUGH 1700Z July 15, 2022
SMOKE: Central and Eastern Canada/Most of the Lower 48/Atlantic off the Northeast U.S. Coast and Southeastern Canada/Mexico… A large amount of moderate to thick density smoke originating from a number of wildfires scattered over northeastern Alberta, northern Saskatchewan, and west central Manitoba was visible this morning extending to the east of these fires and reaching the southern part of Hudson Bay, northern Ontario, and western Quebec. In addition, an extremely large surrounding area of thin density smoke with a few embedded much smaller moderate patches of smoke could be seen covering all of central and eastern Canada, much of the lower 48 with the exception of portions of the far western and southwestern U.S., northern Mexico, and some of the Atlantic off the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada coastal areas. This huge mass of thin to moderate density smoke was likely primarily from a combination of the wildfires burning in Alaska, northwestern Canada, and Central Canada though some localized contributions from smaller fires in the lower 48 is also occurring. Alaska/Gulf of Alaska/Northwestern Canada… Numerous wildfires were still visible in central and east central Alaska though cloudiness likely interfered with detection of a few of these. Some smoke of varying density was seen around breaks in the clouds across central and eastern Alaska, over a portion of the Gulf of Alaska, and the Yukon in northwestern Canada. However, significant cloud cover prevented more detailed information on the extent and density of smoke over Alaska and northwestern Canada. Northern California/Sierras/Great Basin/Intermountain West... The Washburn Fire in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains was responsible for an area of localized moderate to thick density smoke near and to the west and north of the fire. Thinner density smoke from this fire also appeared farther to the north and northeast across portions of the Great Basin and Intermountain West. DUST: Tropical Atlantic/Eastern Caribbean… The western portion of a very large area of Saharan dust had moved far enough to the west to cover the eastern Caribbean including Puerto Rico and at least the eastern half of Hispaniola. Yucatan Peninsula/Gulf of Mexico… Another batch of Saharan dust was present this morning over the Yucatan Peninsula along with the central and western Gulf of Mexico and the Bay of Campeche. JS THIS TEXT PRODUCT IS PRIMARILY INTENDED TO DESCRIBE SIGNIFICANT AREAS OF SMOKE ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE FIRES AND SMOKE WHICH HAS BECOME DETACHED FROM THE FIRES AND DRIFTED SOME DISTANCE AWAY FROM THE SOURCE FIRE, TYPICALLY OVER THE COURSE OF ONE OR MORE DAYS. AREAS OF BLOWING DUST ARE ALSO DESCRIBED. USERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO VIEW A GRAPHIC DEPICTION OF THESE AND OTHER PLUMES WHICH ARE LESS EXTENSIVE AND STILL ATTACHED TO THE SOURCE FIRE IN VARIOUS GRAPHIC FORMATS ON OUR WEB SITE: JPEG map: https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/land/fire/currenthms.jpg Smoke data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Smoke_Polygons Fire data: https://satepsanone.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/FIRE/web/HMS/Fire_Points ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS REGARDING THIS PRODUCT SHOULD BE SENT TO: SSDFireTeam@noaa.gov